Undeterred by the restrictions of a global pandemic we were determined to unit people during this difficult time, albeit virtually from the safety of our homes online. As part of our annual St Helena’s Day celebrations, we hosted a live facebook show in 2021 where we made history by launching the first ever Global Saint Community Map. The response from Saints and their descendants around the world was overwhelming. Hundreds added their location, shared posts across social media and encouraged their families and friends to add their locations to the list as well.
The aim of the map is to show where our little Saint family of 4,500 people have spread to around the world. It has been hypothesized that the global Saint community might be as many as 5 or 6 times larger than that of those living on
St Helena Island. During the live show we learned about Saints living in 35 countries, and that number has now grown to 42 countries since the original airing in 2021. With Saints living on 6 continents.
The final list of countries we mapped from the live show include St Helena, Ascension Island (yes, we’re counting it separate), Falkland Islands, Chile, Costa Rica, , Canada, United States, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Isle of Man, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Malta, Greece, Bulgaria, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Afghanistan, India, China, Singapore, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and 🏴 Tasmania.
Since the show we’ve added 🇯🇵 Japan, 🇭🇺 Hungary, 🇲🇿 Mozambique, 🇬🇮 Gibraltar, 🇯🇪 Jersey, and 🇳🇴 Norway. We encourage any Saint or their descendants to get in touch to add their location.
Interestingly we found the highest geographically located Saint in the world lives in
Norway. The lowest lives in
Chile. The most westerly lives in
Victoria, Canada and the most easterly living on the
South Island of New Zealand. Not surprisingly most St Helenian’s from the Island live in the UK including Wales, Scotland, Ireland. The furthest any Saint was living from the island was 15,798km away in
Japan. With 2 Saints living there.
We were so inspired and humbled by the sheer number of people who reached out to be included as part of the Saint Family. People really took ownership of the idea of being part of a global saint family. Their enthusiasm and support for the project has been incredible.
